The Other Market!

Last week I sat down with Pablo Calderon Salazar to talk about a great new project that bridges art with social design. In order to start a debat about ‘work’ in local communities initiator Calderon intervenes into daily life: he goes into dialogue with passers-by, challenging them to propose personal skills that would be usefull in a differently structured society and/or economy. Afterwards these conversations, opinions and proposals get documented with directly made posters, video’s, podcasts, drawings and photo’s. Let’s talk about The Other Market! (See below for the Dutch text, zie onderaan de tekst in het Nederlands).

The project started in 2012, being Calderon’s graduation project at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Initially the tools he used during his interventions were a set of cards (symbolising a possible exchange system, instead of actual money). The past two years Calderon fed debates in Milan, Budapest, Eindhoven, The Hague, Utrecht,… You can read all about it right at THIS amazing online platform! Nowadays Calderon is doing a PHD at LUCA School of Arts (both in Brussels and in Genk) while constantly developping the project together with local participants on an independent basis.

In Genk the story just started though, with support of the local govenment. With his colourful carrier cycle Calderon has been conversating and documenting for three times, while several other ‘talks’ are scheduled for the upcoming months in the different districs of the city. Since employment is such a big issue in Genk, Calderon made this topic the central theme of his interventions. What’s the meaning of work for you? What’s the traditional meaning of employment within our actual society? What other meanings do/should exist? Which personal skills would fit a new or alternative definition of work? A few weeks ago the project got festively presented with a pop up exhibition of the results of these first encounters in a former store display.

Through Calderon’s technique local citizens open their eyes to the issue of sustainable structures and, the other way around, the project shows that some citizens are already occupied with the topic. For example, the conversation with Souleymane made a great impact. He happens to be a very active bio-farmer in his spare time, and established a sort of small-scale exchange system with the vegetables from his garden! Very cool discovery J

But, as Calderon told me, the ultimate goal for Genk is much bigger. On the long term the exhibition room should function as a central meeting place for a constantly evolving community. This community would consist of local inhabitants that would be using their ‘alternative skills’ in a self-structured organisation. In this way alternatives for today’s structures can grow organicly, based on growth of personal and communal skills. This second part of the project still is in an experimental phase and will require support, time and patience, Calderon acknowledges. What would it take to bridge these first encounters to a real local community? Stuff to think about. And to act upon.

I'm Art, born, raised and living in Genk, Belgium. This beautiful multicultural city, built on coal mining and a heavy assemblage and chemical industry currently is switching to a flemish hotspot for sustainable innovation. The goal of this blog is to give you an insider's view about local sustainability initiatives.